The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This is a photo from a recent trip to Tasmania’s central highlands. While I only explored this area in particular for a short amount of time (due to bad weather), I was quite happy to come away with this image, where I attempted to explore the colours and textures of the landscape.
Specific Feedback
I would appreciate feedback on the composition, as well as if the image is interesting or not. I attempted to create a natural curve in the image by framing the shrub in the foreground so that it intersects with the rocky outcrop. My intention for this was also to help the viewer move through a gradient of texture and colour as they look from the foreground upwards. I am curious if this works as a compositional device, or if the inclusion of the shrub is distracting. As always, all feedback is welcome
Technical Details
Taken on a full frame camera at 50mm, f/22, 1/25 Seconds, using a tripod.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
This is an interesting study of texture and color in a (heathland?) landscape that I know very little about. I like the contrast between the blue-grey of the rocks and distant mountains the yellow-greens and browns of the vegetation. The composition also allows the viewer to explore the foreground vegetation and rocks in the context of the whole landscape.
The light is quite flat, so that it was probably difficult to get a bit of magic into the image. Hence, the success of the image relies more on the color and texture contrasts.
In my opinion, you did well to include the shrub in the foreground, but I think the image would have been stronger if you had moved in substantially closer to reveal more foreground details provided by the pine-like shrub and perhaps the weathered grey branches. In the present image, they are there, but I think they are too small to be interesting enough for a compelling composition. A wider lens would have been a better choice, with the front approx. 10-20 cm above the rim of the shrub. This might have resulted in a greater distance to the background mountains, however, and potentially a broader band of rather featureless brown vegetation.
An alternative composition may have been possible with the standard lens if you had been able to find a shrub with a visually more interesting (circular) shape to use as your foreground, surrounded by the blue-grey rock. Finding such a foreground costs (sometimes quite a lot of) exploration time, however, which you may not have had.
The crop added below cannot really show the drastic change in composition suggested above, but I do feel it creates more of a diagonal in the left foreground that leads the eye to the top of the outcrop a bit better. The eye then wanders to the green shrubs (?) in the background, which are interesting and useful focal points, but I feel they are too small in the frame to provide more information on what they are.
Using a short telephoto lens with focus stacking 3-4 images (or an 85 or 90mm telephoto tilt lens) may also have been an interesting approach: you could have combined interesting and more recognisable foreground and background elements with a slightly more compressed perspective. Perhaps something you can try next time?
